So, Vaal pact nerf?

I was brought in to this game in 3.0. I have been playing MMOs for too much of my life, but yet I tried to shift to this one and give it a try. I was (and still am) quite overwhelemed by the sheer massiveness of the game.

I love melee. I always have. So I tried a Cyclone/Berserker/Vaal Pact build. I can't tell you how many times VP has saved my life. (I agree many MANY of these times are just me being a newb/baddie.) There are, however, a few times where I literally say to myself: "How is this even possible as a melee without Vaal Pact?!" I literally, within 5 minutes ago, had this question.

Shipyard map -- Brinerot leaders -- Susara, Siren of Pondium as the main boss. She literally chain casted lighting tendrils for 30 seconds straight, and all I could see was my life bar flickering. Those chain tendrils went well beyond melee range and shit on me like bricks with full resistance.

I get it... Melee get out ASAP, wait for it to be done, then get back in. But when she keeps casting it as every other ability (at best), how is that even possible? (Please don't bring in totems as sole means of damage.)

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Datachanger wrote:

I get it... Melee get out ASAP, wait for it to be done, then get back in. But when she keeps casting it as every other ability (at best), how is that even possible? (Please don't bring in totems as sole means of damage.)

We've came to regard the fact that some things are significantly less feasible for a melee as one of the seldom disputed facts about the game, quite a few abilities are designed to shit on you hard and very few to do the opposite. Think of it as hardmode and don't dwell on it too much for the sake of your sanity, instead be thankful that you came to this game at the moment when some truly broken anti-melee crap isn't around anymore.

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Datachanger wrote:

I was brought in to this game in 3.0. I have been playing MMOs for too much of my life, but yet I tried to shift to this one and give it a try. I was (and still am) quite overwhelemed by the sheer massiveness of the game.

I love melee. I always have. So I tried a Cyclone/Berserker/Vaal Pact build. I can't tell you how many times VP has saved my life. (I agree many MANY of these times are just me being a newb/baddie.) There are, however, a few times where I literally say to myself: "How is this even possible as a melee without Vaal Pact?!" I literally, within 5 minutes ago, had this question.

Shipyard map -- Brinerot leaders -- Susara, Siren of Pondium as the main boss. She literally chain casted lighting tendrils for 30 seconds straight, and all I could see was my life bar flickering. Those chain tendrils went well beyond melee range and shit on me like bricks with full resistance.

I get it... Melee get out ASAP, wait for it to be done, then get back in. But when she keeps casting it as every other ability (at best), how is that even possible? (Please don't bring in totems as sole means of damage.)

I fought Susara just the other day on my Raider. Tried to duck out and get away from the Lightning Tendrils for quite a bit, until I realized something - my (normal) leech, my regen, and my LGoH from the claws all combined to produce more healing than Susara had damage. I could, quite literally, just stand there and hold down Frost Blades. Stand completely still, not care whatsoever about her damage, and tank with the best of faces.

I don't recall the map mods (other than a Fire Tempest prophecy tripping), but it was an alch-and-go run so I wasn't attempting to make it super soft. I just stripped away the rest of the Warband and proceeded to screw up Susara's day. Frankly, I did better when I stopped trying to be mobile and clever and just punched her out in a face-to-face slugging match; otherwise she just followed me around and Tendril'd me whenever I stopped.

You don't always need Vaal Picnic Instant Bullshit Leech to stay up in a fight. Also recall that the Berserker is specifically built to take more damage - "high risk high reward", with abilities based on taking a huge friggin' beating. Also Mk. II: did you have any other passive defenses set up? Avoidance, weakening curses, protective flasks?

Try that fight with an Inquisitor using Augury of Penitence, Sanctify and Pious Path w/BlasFeeble - she'd probably barely so much as tickle you with the Inquisitor's regen, some basic leech, and the elemental damage reduction on top of Enfeeble being downright goddamn evil good at doing its job.

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Datachanger wrote:

I get it... Melee get out ASAP, wait for it to be done, then get back in. But when she keeps casting it as every other ability (at best), how is that even possible? (Please don't bring in totems as sole means of damage.)

As a player who only plays melee (no totems, no minions, no ranged melee aka sunder) you have to be creative.

I choose to alter my build so that my attacks deal bleeding (though ignite could also work here). This way on bosses where the best tactic is to dodge most of the time I am doing damage while I am dodging. Bleed has the bonus that if I can trick my opponent to chase me I deal even more damage.

It is worth noting that using this tactic is good with fortify (as a support gem) as its refresh timer is about how often you need to refresh bleed.

On the flip side melee builds tend to have many situations where they can just tank as an option and many other builds have to always run around like a chicken with their head cut off.

"INTRODUCING HOW QUICKLY YOU CAN LOG OUT BEFORE THE BOSS MURDERS YOU IN HARDCORE MODE"

What the fuck is this.

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Datachanger wrote:

I love melee. I always have. So I tried a Cyclone/Berserker/Vaal Pact build. I can't tell you how many times VP has saved my life. (I agree many MANY of these times are just me being a newb/baddie.) There are, however, a few times where I literally say to myself: "How is this even possible as a melee without Vaal Pact?!" I literally, within 5 minutes ago, had this question.

You play like a scared little girl, accept you're going to die anyway or you play ranged. Everyone plays ranged. :)

Sunder is currently the only melee skill played, and that's cause it has a bit of a range.
Melee offers MUCH lower survivability and lower clearspeed, there's literally no reason to play it other than "I love melee and want to play it no matter what". GGG is aware of all this, they've heard all the complaints million times already. And Vaal Pact is being removed now, so your survivability will be even worse next league.

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Nephalim wrote:

Game has taken a downward spiral since 2.6 and this is really the final nail in the competitive coffin.

The developers want to make the game challenging and rewarding to play instead of being faceroll, and this is a downward spiral?

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Caydellass wrote:

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Nephalim wrote:

Game has taken a downward spiral since 2.6 and this is really the final nail in the competitive coffin.

The developers want to make the game challenging and rewarding to play instead of being faceroll, and this is a downward spiral?

Don't waste your time and energy, man. Nobody's going to convince Neph the game is anything but a disaster on the brink of failing completely and shutting down the servers.

Also remember: "melee" means individually namelocking specific enemies to death one-by-one with Heavy Strike. If that sort of playstyle isn't every bit as fast and powerful as a full-up Kinetic Blast build, then Melee is Dead(TM).

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1453R wrote:

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Caydellass wrote:

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Nephalim wrote:

Game has taken a downward spiral since 2.6 and this is really the final nail in the competitive coffin.

The developers want to make the game challenging and rewarding to play instead of being faceroll, and this is a downward spiral?

Don't waste your time and energy, man. Nobody's going to convince Neph the game is anything but a disaster on the brink of failing completely and shutting down the servers.

Also remember: "melee" means individually namelocking specific enemies to death one-by-one with Heavy Strike. If that sort of playstyle isn't every bit as fast and powerful as a full-up Kinetic Blast build, then Melee is Dead(TM).

It is hard for you to comprehend this but is it possible to oppose balance direction and not feel like the game is going to fall over and die next week.

PoE is a wonderful game at the core and the only reason people voice their approval and or lack of it so loudly is because they care about it.